Born-Again and the Old Testament

     I cannot keep pounding away at one notion: Jesus was the Way from the beginning! From Adam to you and me, Jesus was the Way. The only way to be saved is through and always was the Name of God - Him who was called Jesus:

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

     "No man" includes Adam, Noah, Moses, and even Isaiah and the other prophets. Indeed they are the foundation of the Church along with the apostles, and Christ!

Ephes 2:20 (The household of God) And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone...

     In context, "the household of God" is obviously the Church of which Jesus is the Cornerstone (the Way). The cornerstone of any building is the datum from which all other stones are lain in all directions; hence is the Way the Church is built.
     Isaiah was a Christian as were all the other prophets! He saw and had Jesus speak with him as assuredly as the apostle Paul, another on which the Church was built. Isaiah even explained what one "must be" - which is "born again" (John 3:7). "Must be" includes everyone because that is how one is saved! Moses knew that the rebirth is total reliance on God because Jesus used the example of Moses raising "Jesus", represented by a brass serpent,  up on a pole. In like manner, it is obvious that to know what born again means, Isaiah must have been!

Isa 9:2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined... 8 The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel... 15 The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.

     Those passages are prophecy. Isaiah 9:2  describes what born again means: As Jesus explains the second birth he says "he that doeth truth cometh to the light" (John 3:21). Isaiah knew what born again meant. He understood what Moses lifting up the pole in the wilderness meant - that brass serpent on top of the pole, lifted up for the faithful to see, was the Way those in the darkness were saved! Those who failed to raise their eyes to "Jesus" died by the poisonous vipers because they had not seen the light shining on the brass serpent, which represented the blood of Jesus.

     Isaiah went on to say in verse 8: "The Lord sent a word to Jacob, and it hath lighted up Israel." Jacob is Israel. After Jacob wrestled with God, and saw the light (that the Word Is God) he was renamed Israel (meaning "he wrestled with an angel"). Jacob identified the "angel" as God Himself (Gen 32).  The Abrahamic Covenant promised a blessing through Abraham's seed. The "blessing" is Jesus Christ the Messiah. Jesus was the Word made flesh who dwelt among mankind but was there in the beginning (John 1:1-2, 14). Christ was with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel! The Messiah - Jesus - as John 14:6 says, is Jesus who indeed did "light up Israel" (verse 8 in the passage above).

     Salvation, or rebirth, was promised to Adam and Eve:

Gen 3:16 ...I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

     

     Look at Isaiah 9:15 above and compare with Genesis  3:16. The enmity between the woman and the serpent which was bruising the serpents head with the woman's heel, is prophetic that Jesus, in the line of Eve, the mother of all, would step on the serpent's head. He did that at Calvary!

     In my book, The Skull of Adam, that is the entire theme! Isaiah knew that Jesus would die on a pole to save mankind. The brass serpent was Jesus belittling Satan whose head was stepped on at Calvary. When anyone puts his eyes on Jesus lifted up on that pole (acknowledging his efficacious sacrfice), those believers are born again.

     The purpose of this commentary, as well as The Skull of Adam, is that the prophets conversed with Jesus, believed in Him, and lifted their eyes to God Himself on the Cross. When Isaiah saw Jesus as the Light, he too was born again just as the apostles were and we are! The Old Testament is all about Jesus dying for mankind which is by grace and for all! That is the "mystery of God" (Ephes 3:9) which Paul revealed!